


In Death, Life.

by MinervaFeatherflight



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23300770
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinervaFeatherflight/pseuds/MinervaFeatherflight
Summary: Cyril is fighting on the battleground but he takes his eyes off the opponent for just a second and...
Kudos: 7





	In Death, Life.

**Author's Note:**

> A one-shot fic I used to get back into my author mode that actually turned out great. See if you can spot the great uses of core descriptive novel elements and fundamentals such as repetition, themes, imagery, etc.

Death came at me fast, almost instantly, and in the shape of a sword. I got way too reckless and eyed Lysithea from afar, and next thing you know, I felt an icy blade pierce through my tender pancreas and open me up through my back and a grinning rogue staring at me, his hand thoroughly gripping the blade hilt. I coughed and retched blood which splattered on the rogue's chin and neck and my killer seemed to sneer even more. I felt my hearing crackle a little bit for a few seconds so I couldn't make out what the rogue had said while he was wiping my blood off of his chin and smearing it on his neck. When my hearing came back into focus, I caught the last few words he spoke out angrily.

"...pay for that asshole!"

"Pay?" I thought to myself while losing my vision. "What did I have to pay? Who do I owe?" My mind kind of blurred after that and I began to get lost deep into my thoughts. The first thing that came to mind was my earliest years. My father. My mother. I could barely picture their faces but I assumed I never would recall how they looked since they had abandoned me at two years old. I thought it odd that I'd see their image flicker in front of me now that I was practically primed for my eternal slumber but I didn't really care, I still wanted nothing to do with them, or so I told myself.

From there the scenes that played were random ones. Scenes that I had forgotten about, scenes that held almost no significance whatsoever to the current pain I was being forced to endure. I recalled the time when I first entered Garreg Mach and the people there eyeing me quizzically. The traders grunted and asked me if I was lost. It almost felt as if I was reliving it. I spoke out. "I need to get back home." The blacksmith rolled her eyes and told me to ask a Knight of Seiros for help and not bother the common folk. I shrugged her annoyed glances off since I was used to my parents looking at me when I was a toddler. They probably weren't the best parents, in fact they definitely weren't role models, but for some reason I had always wanted to go meet them again. My stubborn father and my depressed mother. My drunk father and my injured mother. My gambling father and my tired mother. I wished to at least see them clearly once more.

The next scene was my first day on the job. Well, people told me it wasn't a job, but more of a task, but I chose to behave as if it was a job. After all, I'd do anything for the one who had saved my life and given me shelter. That day was a rough one though, I remembered accidentally slipping over the mop and knocking myself unconscious. When I woke up and tried to move I felt a razor sharp sting coming from my elbow. I took a look at the grisly gash that tore apart the skin there and nearly fainted. Then, after I yelled in pain, a figure appeared and walked over to my side. She was beautiful. She was my saviour. Much different than my troublemaker father and deceitful mother. I found myself imagining that beautiful figure watching over me as the sword was pulled out of me but it didn't last long. When I collapsed on the ground, I began to see the world fuzzier, but the image of my parents became a bit clearer. I could now see my mother's shattered eyes. She took the place of the figure I imagined by my side once more. I wanted to call out to her but I couldn't find my voice. It was like a chasm of emptiness had swallowed my meek voice and kept it pinned deep within it's pitch black, never-ending stomach.

The third scene showed me trying stew for the first time. I wasn't sure I even liked stew but I was reminded in that moment that I was starving so I wolfed it down. The cook walked up to me with a delighted smile on her face and asked if I wanted another bowl since I had, without hesitation, devoured the first one. I answered "Yes please." The scene faded away as the cook strutted away, humming a familiar tune and left me back on the ground. I had no idea how long it had been since I had fallen but the rogue was still looking down on me. He flickered for a moment and my father took his place. I looked away from him for a second and to my surprise I saw the one friend I had staring at me. I honestly thought he was real so I mustered up the energy to shout at him to go help but he didn't move. Actually, when I strained my eyes to focus on him I realized he couldn't move. I was staring at a tree, not my old friend.

After what felt like days of lying on the ground with my blurry vision and ruptured hearing, a lone cloud passed over the sun and another vision passed by. I tried fighting it's influence over me, I didn't understand why I was being shown these memories that seemed to have no purpose, but it wouldn't budge. It wasn't like fighting a person though, where they would seem to bend to the will of my thoughts though, it was as if it's hold over me was that of a paralyzing shadow, I couldn't seem to blink them away at all. Having spent all my strength of will, I laid on the ground and followed this mysterious will of my brain and let the fourth scene consume me.

This fourth scene was different from the others in one ginormous way. This wasn't a memory of something I had done or had happened to me, this one seemed to read my thoughts and portray them back to me on the projector that was my mind. The scene showed me doing something I had never done before since the day I had entered through the gates; leave Garreg Mach, alone. As I strongly believed my life now belonged to the person who had rescued me from the vices of death itself, this act the fake me was committing wouldn't even linger in my mind, I wouldn't allow it to. Still, I would be a liar if I said I've never thought about how different my life could be if I did leave. The reason I had wondered about a different life came in the form of an advisor and right hand man of the one who had saved my life. A green haired man named Seteth. Seteth had often tried to convince me to think about a life that was devoted to myself by telling me that my saviour would wish for me to keep the life she had given to me for myself and not just devoted to her. I had honestly considered his advice, but in the end, I had decided that I would live my life in service to her for her. I guess this was fate's way of showing me the life I had been robbed of. It showed this alternate me picking pears, talking with people I could only assume were potential friends, me entering a quaint shack with a homely appeal, me bumping into a girl, then marrying her a few years later, me getting into a fight with my wife, my wife leaving me and getting a divorce, me dancing in a circle with other men, a scene where I injured myself, another being treated by a nurse, another with my friends cheering me up from being lonely, me finally settling down with another girl in my late fifties, then me sitting on my porch and watching the clouds fly by at sixty-four, then finally my last breath before a heart attack caused me to pass away. My tombstone read "Here lies Cyril. Loving husband to Emmaline." I wanted to cry out, I wanted to yell at whatever this influence was to stop showing me these images that made me long for another life. I tried to scream or move a muscle but my injuries kept me locked in place. Why did this unseen phantom of my nightmares plague me with a life I now wished I had? Unfortunately I never got an answer to my questions.

I tried glancing around once more at my surroundings, wishing someone would hurry up and find me, but I couldn't see much of anything. The rogue who had stabbed me now brandished his sword again with both hands over my body as if he was about to perform a ritual while plunging a dagger into my chest. I tried to force myself to move away from him once more but the strain it took on me only made me spit out more blood and pop a vessel in my eye. The now painted crimson sword the rogue held sunk its way deep through my flesh and punctured my left kidney, making my vision turn a spotted red and black. I let out a raw, vocal cord shredding, almost primal scream and the next thing I saw was a now clear image of both my father and mother together with their hands reaching out towards me. I was confused on how clear the imagery was but I channeled my will to break free of my invisible spectator box and reach out my hand. To my surprise, when I did, my father and mother seemed to stretch farther away from me. I set out on a jog, hoping to outpace the distance but I could never get close enough. How, in these final moments I wished so badly to touch them again. My flawed father and flawed mother. My foolish father and foolish mother. My father and my mother. I clawed at their image, desperately trying to latch on to a piece of their clothing or something, but there was no use. I would have kept reaching for them but their image faded once more and I was quickly yanked back to reality.

Two girls were carrying me on a stretcher yelling something at me, but due to my crackling hearing I could only make out bits of what they were saying to me.

"Hang o…"  
"...You to …infirmary!"

Their words were fragmented but it was enough to understand I was being rushed to a medic. I was overjoyed. I thought to myself "I was going to be saved!" I decided that once my injuries were tended to and I was given clear leave to go back to my life that I would ask for permission to live my own life, with its own ups and downs, and make my own friends. See new places, meet new faces. I felt my vision fail once again and struggled to keep my eyes open so I closed them. It was much more comfortable that way, it even made me want to drift off to sleep, but my mind kept racing with all the people I might meet and the knowledge I would gain on my journey. I found my voice again, and whispered just loud enough for one of the nurses to hear me.

"When this is dealt with, I'm going to start living my own life." The nurse turned to me and smiled, acknowledging that she heard me.

"I think that's a wonderful idea." The nurse replied, slightly out of breath.

"Yeah, I'm going to ask for permission to leave Garreg Mach and live the life that's now open to me. I'll travel to new places, learn about new people, try new foods, find new friends. I can't wait to start my new life. I can't w-"

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I used this as a prep to finally start working on a bigger story that I won't spoil here. Don't expect any hints either. ;) Stay tuned for some more updates on some of my other works including a brand new ??? involving ???


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